Jackfruit is the newest ingredient I have added to my culinary repertoire -- and I am quite excited by the delicious opportunities it is opening up. I found 20 oz cans of it at Checker's Grocery Store for 1.49 each. Which means that this is something very economical to use -- so I plan to use it to make BBQ Jackfruit for the next ECM Free Veggie Lunch.

For this recipe make sure you use YOUNG GREEN JACKFRUIT as shown in this photo. After draining the liquid from the can -- this is what the stuff looks like.

Then you just use your fingers or a fork to smash each piece and you will notice that it kind of flakes apart when you do this and the texture is reminiscent of​ pulled pork.

This recipe is super quick and easy. Really all you do is saute an onion, add grated carrots, shredded Jackfruit and then mix in BBQ sauce, and let it saute for a bit for the flavor to permeate the Jackfruit. That's it.

However, many store bought BBQ sauces are not vegan -- they often contain honey or Worcestershire sauce (which contains anchovies)-- and if they use plain old sugar for sweetening -- that sugar might be genetically modified or filtered through bone char. That's why I prefer to make my own BBQ sauce. The recipe I provide here, I have adapted to be less expensive than what I usually make for my family. When I make it for them, I sweeten with a combination of maple syrup and stevia -- but here I have substituted raw (turbinado) sugar (which I found at Checkers for 3.00 for a two pound box -- and it is labeled, "vegan", "gluten-free" "kosher parve --OU" and "non-gmo"). This keeps the costs down, while making it inclusive for lots of people.

BTW -- You can make this recipe completely oil- free, by sauteing the onions in water instead of oil -- but it's a bit more time consuming and tricky to get them to brown in water -- you have to watch them very closely and keep drizzling in just a tiny bit of water continuously to keep them from sticking. Since I created this recipe specifically to make for ECM's Veggie Lunch -- and will be making it for about 100 people -- using oil will make it much easier to prepare.